A redirect allows us to forward one URL to another. It's a handy way to send users and search engines to a different URL than the one they originally requested, and allows you to retain your search engine rankings for a particular page.
It is also a useful means of preserving the ranking power of the website's age, out of date content is simply redirected from the old pages or posts to new ones with the new information.
In this post we're going to cover the 301 redirect with wordpress, some methods that can be used to help maintain a site's content for SEO best practices, and how we've used a 301 redirect on our blog to increase traffic.
There are three main types of redirects: 301, 302, 307, and meta refresh.
A 301 is a permanent redirect and according to Moz , this type of redirect passes 90-99 percent of the ranking power to the redirected page.
The 301 number refers to the HTTP status code, which informs search engines that a page has moved.
In most cases, a 301 redirect is the best method of direct implementation on a website.
A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect and passes 0 percent of the ranking power. In most cases it should not be used.
A 307 redirect is the HTTP 1.1 successor to the 302 redirect .
Meta refresh are a type of redirect executed at the page level instead of at the server level.
In general, it is best to use a 301 to redirect a URL to a different URL to preserve search engine rankings.
According to Moz which is more or less the authority on search engine optimization, the 301 redirect is preferred for users and search engines for these reasons:
Doing a 301 tells browsers and search engine bots that the page has moved permanently. Search engines interpret that not only has the location page changed, but also that the content of an updated version of it can be found at the new URL. The engines will take any links from the original page to the new URL.
When done right a 301 redirect has the power to clean up a messy architecture, resolve stale content issues, and improve the user experience , all while preserving the strength of old links and previous rank.
You can create a new post with fresh content and redirect older articles to the new post.
SEO Redirection allows you to quickly configure the use of 301, 302 or 307 redirection. You can also monitor 404 errors and redirect them.
Including a new redirect is as simple as entering the old address, including the new address we want users to be redirected to, and the type (301, 302, 307) we want to use.
Redirection allows you to manage 301 redirects and also keep track of 404 errors.
Access to your Apache htaccess file is not required as the plugin works entirely within WordPress.
A great feature of this plugin is the redirect statistics. These allow you to see how many times a redirect has occurred, when it happened in the past, who tried to do it, and where they found the URL.
One of the cleanest ways to create a 301 redirect is by using the htaccess file in your WordPress website directory. It's fast, simple and SEO friendly.
Note that this method is only for Apache servers.
To redirect an entire website:
This keeps the links intact, so it converts from www.oldsite.com/helloworld to www.newsite.com/helloworld
301 redirects can be beneficial to our site if you have a lot of old articles with out-of-date content and want to make the most of the attached link juice for those posts.
You can also send good signals to search engines by letting them know that your content is fresh and relevant as we explained above.
Plugins offer an easy way to set up redirects on a WordPress site, although if you prefer to edit the files it is possible to do so from the htaccess file.
Do you use the 301 redirect? Has it been beneficial for your site? Let me know your opinion in the comments below.
